A'S NOTEBOOK / Top Pick May Go Unsigned

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, August 26, 1998

1998-08-26 04:00:00 PDT Boston -- General manager Billy Beane expects to meet with left-hander Mike Mulder's agent tomorrow in Boston but did not pretend to be overly optimistic about signing him.

"There's a chance," Beane said.

It's been more than 10 weeks since the June draft, and the A's appear to have made no appreciable progress in talks with Mulder, the second overall pick. San Jose native Pat Burrell, the first pick overall, signed with the Phillies for a total package worth $8 million, but the third and fourth picks overall have not signed.

"They're all having a staring contest," Beane said.

The A's face the real possibility that both Mulder and their second pick, Gerald Laird, will fail to sign. Laird plans to go to USC, which is why most other teams passed on drafting him, even though he was the top-rated catching prospect available.

The draft appears to be losing legitimacy, given the widening split in baseball between big-market teams with scads of cash and teams like the A's that seem to have trouble shelling out enough money to keep soda in their soda machines.

"The agents say things like, 'The market has changed,' " Beane said. "But given the disparity between the haves and the have-nots, we don't consider it a market. It's almost like in the old days of college football when Michigan, USC, Alabama, Oklahoma got the top quarterbacks and the rest of Division I schools got whatever was left, and so they were always the top schools."

WORRELL AILING: Right-hander Tim Worrell, suffering both from the flu and a sore right shoulder, was unavailable last night. Overall, Worrell has been a big plus in the bullpen since the A's acquired him from Cleveland on July 12. He has struck out 21 and walked just three in 21 innings with the A's, compiling a 2.14 ERA.

"He's been great, he's been outstanding," Beane said. "He's got good enough stuff to come in and get you one out in the ninth, and he's got enough pitches to give you two or three innings.

"Given what Tim has given us up to this point, it would be foolish not to want him back next year."